I figured since they gave us an offroad forum I better use it. Most of my garage time over the last few months has been dedicated to my 1988 Wrangler. I like Why-Js, Wronglers, and "not real Jeeps". I dig the square lights. They are my favorite Jeep and Ive had a couple.
Ive had this one since September of 2009. My wife and I were on vacation in Bryson City, North Carolina when I saw it. We stopped for ice and it was at a car lot next door. I walked over, was shocked at how rust free it was and was interested. The lot was closed for the day. Mrs. Logdog, having seen the wild eyed look before, agreed to come back the next day.
The next day we stopped and found out the lot was out of business due to the owner's death. There was a court appointed rep that was selling off the vehicles and I was told I could have it for 1900. At the time a hard top and doors would set you back 1500. A whole rust free jeep for 1900 was an amazing price! So we bought it, a clean unmolested YJ with a 4.2.
A couple pics from that sunny day
My civic is at the other pump
Since North Carolina has inspection stickers they couldn't sell it with an expired one. They sent the lot guy up the road, without the Jeep, to get a new one. He returned with a sticker and a checksheet showing all the things the mechanic had "inspected". He had really good eyes to see the Jeep a mile away!
Part of Mrs Logdog agreeing to let me buy it was I had to sell the YJ I had back in Columbus. It was really rusted, had a bad frame and a floor made out of license plates. I swapped over the tires and got 1500 for it. This is the Jeep I had to sell.
On the way back to Ohio I pushed it too hard through the mountains. I started with a smooth running jeep but arrived with a knocking rod and a smoke billowing exhaust. I was pretty mad at myself for making such a dumb mistake but, such is life. I was going to school full time, working as a tech full time and fall quarter was getting ready to start. We had a small two car garage so in mid-September 2009 I stuck it on one side, closed the door and focused on school while trying to figure out what I was going to do next.
Did the YJ have a 4.2 from factory?
Heh i can use the Googles myself. 4.2 until 91.
Early in fall quarter a friend of gave me a 4.2 from an 84 CJ7 that he said was a good core.
Yay!
I checked with the machine shop we used at work and it was going to cost more than a reman from O'reillys (After discount through my shop) so I worked out a plan to buy the engine and swap it out over Thanksgiving. My school offered an accelerated class I needed during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I had very little time to get the job done. I used the core and got an 84 4.2 and had it sitting and ready to go.
Look at that purty blue paint!
Swank Force One wrote:
Did the YJ have a 4.2 from factory?
Heh i can use the Googles myself. 4.2 until 91.
There are some good values in 4.2 YJs out there. The 4.0 with fuel injection is a better choice so prices reflect it.
Over the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving 2009 I had a couple of friends come over and help me with the swap. Neither of my helpers are car guys. So after explaining "Lefty Loosy" and using their ability to follow directions we started working.
Here is one of them using his new "Wrench Knowledge"
We pulled the Drivers fender and grill so it could be pulled from the side in my small garage.
Success!! I had to take a "trophy" pic so they could show their wifes the accomplishment.
See that Peugeot transmission hanging? It comes back to bite me.
After it was all back in I ran into a problem with the starter. When it was removed it only had one bolt in it. I discovered after the trans was back in that the other hole was stripped and egged out. The "good" hole was getting egged out. It was a situation no helicoil could fix. The bellhousing was too far gone. It got put on the backburner for the Christmas break. I was out of time, money and patience. Winter quarter (my last) started and the whole project was off my radar. Upon graduation I started a job in Michigan and was driving back and forth to Columbus on the weekends. The jeep was so far down the priority list it almost didnt exist.
By October 2010 we found a house and began the move. I towed it up and pushed it into my new garage. It would sit until Spring 2013 before I worked on it again. During that time I half tried to sell it. I posted on here about keeping motivated (I had also picked up other projects I was ignoring). I was really frustrated with the situation.
As it sat neglected.
octavious wrote:
And.....
I started gathering parts to swap over to an AX15 transmission. I figured there was no point in replacing the bell housing of the worst trans ever put in a Jeep. I bought an AX15 with internal slave from a local 4x4 forum. It came with the transfer case.
I bought another AX15 that had the external slave bellhousing. I then ordered the adapter from Advance Adapters to hook up my Peugeot master cylinder to the AX15 external slave. A friend of mine came up from Houston for a long weekend and helped be swap everything over.
Once we got the transmission in I spent some time trying to remember where I left off with all the engine stuff. It ran, but the underhood was full of the old emissions wiring and other stuff that needed cleaned up and removed. This is what I was starting with.
I dont have a pic handy of what it looks like now. But I cleaned up and removed much of the wiring and added an HEI distributor.
you must write shows for the CW given where you stop in the thread.
What the berkeley happened next?!?!?!?
During my cleanups I discovered a missing headbolt. My guess is it can be traced back to the lowbuck reman outfit O'reilly uses. The tip is broken off in the block. I have 13 out of 14 bolts and havent had any issues since discovering it and I have taken it to a local offroad park several times
Flight Service wrote:
you must write shows for the CW given where you stop in the thread.
What the berkeley happened next?!?!?!?
The "Honey-Do" list gets in the way :)
I also discovered an Acura Integra coolant overflow jug fits a Jeep perfect
]
Once I finally got everything together it was time to start testing the sucka out. Mid to late summer I started taking it out to the back pasture and seeing it anything was going to break or blow up.
Here Mrs. Logdog and I were doing some sick firewood crawling
Some hardcore rock crawling!
Once I was satisfied it wasnt going to blow up, we loaded it on a trailer for its first outing.
More poser pics from the first outing
After that first trip I decided to add a winch. The local 4x4 forum came through with a used Warn and mount for the price of a new China one.
beans
Dork
3/12/14 7:53 p.m.
Should've done the 4.2/4.0 stroker :(
Other than that, great start! I love the YJ's with diagonal bars.
joey48442 wrote:
The mounds?
Joey
Yep. I have a more pics to go through and post so I can bring the story up to date.
beans wrote:
Should've done the 4.2/4.0 stroker :(
Other than that, great start! I love the YJ's with diagonal bars.
Budget was the biggest issue when I bought it. The reman was the cheapest fastest option at the time. I didnt have time for a 4.0 conversion or the money for the 4.2/4.0.
If I had a time machine I would have done nothing back in 2009 and saved my monies toward a 5.3 ls swap. I doubt it would have been any more expensive than this. Especially after putting TBI on it like I want to.
Actually....If I had a time machine I would do a lot of things different, like go back and give myself a sports almanac
